Colombia - Yulieth Mora's Ombligon

This lot absolutely jumped out to us on the cupping table as an insta-buy, a supreme example of the "Modern Colombian" style from a producer new to us. By "Modern Colombian" we mean the high intervention approach to post-harvest that has come to define Colombia's current wave of speciality producers, where fermentation (in this case, yeast inoculation) is given a deliberate and heavy hand in shaping the final cup.

Yulieth is a third-generation producer at Villa Pastora, working alongside her brother Gerson Mora Ortega and father Álvaro Arley Mora Anacona. The farm was founded by their grandmother Pastora Anacona, who planted its first Typica trees in the 1980s and for whom the property is named. 

Fans of the El Jaragual Rosado - you will love this coffee.

Brew Guide:

Best Brewed with: Filter

Lightest Roaster Influence: We've been progressively roasting this one lighter in our test profiling, finding there's some held-in-cherry flavours we're trying to clean up. Intensely sweet, we're chasing acids to balance it out and maximising complexity with a slightly softer than trad-washed approach, but short development and lower end temperature

Best Rested: 3-4 weeks

Filter: 64g/L & 93°C, with rest we like to move down to 91°C - reduce the process notes

Espresso: Turbo shots + 3 weeks rest. 18g/45g+ & 20s

We’re tasting: Big process forward notes of passionfruit yoghurt, bruised plum, tepache and citra hops. In the cup it's super peachy and process forward - almost like peach bellini. Supporting notes of alphonso mango, nectarine and orange barley water keep the cup interesting, and as it cools we find more of that tropical hop note - reminding us of both the profile of citra and galaxy hops. Very sweet and wild

Traceability

Country of Origin:	Colombia
Region:	Vereda Sinaí, Palestina, Huila
Producer:	Yulieth Mora Ortega
Farm:	Villa Pastora
Variety:	Ombligon
Elevation:	1680 MASL
Process:	Yeast Inoculated Washed: Ripe cherries picked, floated and skimmed before depulping. Parchment placed in sealed barrels with water and inoculated with a specific S. cerevisiae yeast strain for a 120 hour fermentation, washed then dried under a marsequina for 15 days.
Import Partner:	Primavera
Harvest	25/26 - Arrived UK: Late Jan 26. New Purchasing Relationship.

 

The Story

Finca Villa Pastora sits in one of our favourite microregions in Huila - Palestina. A small farm of roughly eight hectares, their coffees grow under cedar, bamboo, and rubber trees shade trees, managed as a low-input approach without agrichemicals. Not certified organic, but following similar practices and towards a more regenerative style of agriculture, something we're big fans of. The farm employs around eight full-time workers from the surrounding area.

Pastora Anacona acquired the land in the 1980s and planted its first Typica, managing the farm until 2002 when her son Álvaro Arley Mora Anacona took over and began expanding the operation towards differentiated speciality production.

Yulieth and her brother Gerson are the third generation to work the land, and what was once a conventional Typica farm now cultivates Caturra, Tabí, Colombia, Rosado, Gesha, Orange Bourbon, Bourbon Rayado, and Ombligon. With that cultivar diversification has come investment in processing infrastructure and fermentation knowledge, and the family now also purchases cherry from neighbouring smallholders to process on-site. Cherry purchasing for heavy ferments is something we have mixed feelings on - on the one hand, if the prices paid for wet cherry are good, and the producers would not otherwise have the ability to access speciality markets or some of the premiums paid for lots like this, it's broadly a good thing (like for example in countries like Rwanda or Ethiopia where producers could not be expected to have the resources to process on site or the farm sizes do not support it).
On the flipside, if producers are able to process and dry their own coffee, it's the best way for them to retain value - but not everyone has the knowledge, equipment and ability to take the risk on higher intervention lots, and getting it wrong can mean effectively throwing away your crop and your money, as badly fermented lots are not able to be sold to commercial buyers (who want clean, non-fruity cups without "unwashed" flavours). Like we said, mixed feelings - so long as the wet cherry price is good, we're broadly on board with it.

Ombligon is a variety believed to be a natural mutation with Ethiopian landrace lineage, named for the distinctive dimple (ombligo, belly button) at the base of its cherry. It is also known as Papayo in Quindío - it's likely they are just the same variety when you see them, but then seedstock purity, cross pollination and whatnot in Colombia means there could be some local diversity - see the rise of "Colombian" Gesha vs the Panama accessions and original Gori Gesha lines. Genetic testing indicates a close relationship to Ethiopian landraces rather than the Bourbon or Caturra parentage initially assumed, though its precise origins remain unconfirmed. 

The variety first gained widespread international attention in 2023 when an Ombligon lot was used to secure a podium finish at the World Barista Championship. Since then, recognised cup quality has driven increased planting across Huila and more offerings are reaching the international market each year. For reasons we haven't quite figured out yet (our theory is that it's purely due to coming to prominence in a time where this style dominates attention), Ombligon is rarely processed with a light hand, and the vast majority of lots available tend towards high technical intervention. Having previously featured an Ombligon via La Soledad, we know from experience that the variety offers a base of clean, bright acidity and pronounced aromatics that responds well to heavier post-harvest techniques, which is exactly what Yulieth has delivered here.